Monday, June 18, 2012

Thus says the Lord GOD:
I, too, will take from the crest of the cedar,
from its topmost branches tear off a tender shoot,
and plant it on a high and lofty mountain;
on the mountain heights of Israel I will plant it.
It shall put forth branches and bear fruit,
and become a majestic cedar.
Birds of every kind shall dwell beneath it,
every winged thing in the shade of its boughs.
And all the trees of the field shall know
that I, the LORD,
bring low the high tree,
lift high the lowly tree,
wither up the green tree,
and make the withered tree bloom.
As I, the LORD, have spoken, so will I do.
Ezekiel 17 22:24

Praised be Jesus everyone!

Today the Church (Ordinary form) celebrates the eleventh Sunday in Ordinary Time. I would like to reflect for a minute on the first reading of today's Mass. The first reading this Sunday is actually very appropriate considering it's proximity to the Feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and Immaculate Heart of Mary. In this reading the prophet speaks of the shoot being transplanted to the high lofty mountain where it flourishes and bears fruit, and becomes a shade and shelter for the birds of the air. We to must be transplanted, from the soil of this world, into the soil of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. It is only in the divine saviors love and grace that we can truly grow and achieve holiness. When we abide in the Heart of Jesus we become a strong tree, that others seeking holiness, will come to us for shelter, will seek our aid in time of hardship, and we in turn can help them on their path to holiness that they may also take root in the soil of the Lord.

Saturday, June 16, 2012

Praised be Jesus Everyone!
This is my 1st post after a long hiatus, and it sure feels good to be back.
Yesterday we celebrated the feast of the Sacred heart of Jesus, and today we celebrate the feast of the Immaculate heart of Mary. For many of Catholics these are common images, and devotions build a fundamental cornerstone of devotional practice, but very few people understand what these devotions entail, and what deeper reality these devotions point to, that being The infinite love of Christ, and pure love for Christ.

The Sacred Heart
I don't think we can ever comprehend the interior life, and love in which Christ reaches out to all his children (whether they be very far away from him, or very near to his heart). Devotion to the Heart of Jesus is devotion to the very real and tangible love of God. It is said that through Jesus "God loves us with a human heart" and how true that statement is. God becomes man, to die for humanity, and through this becoming man, humanity is assumed into the Godhead. The God who was far off now is close, and near to us, who understands our humanity through experience, and not through divine omnipotence. The Heart of Jesus is an invitation to draw closer in intimacy with the divine. Christ loves us in the midst of our human experience and seeks to bring this human experience to perfection in his own perfected humanity. Christ in his humanity knows all human struggle, and heartache, loneliness and loss,joy, pleasure,and in Christ the whole trinity knows and has experienced these things. And it is through uniting all our hearts with Christ in this walk of life that we are brought to perfection.

The Immaculate Heart
Devotion to The Immaculate Heart of Our Blessed Mother, is a reflection on our life in Christ. by the virtue of her Immaculate conception, our Blessed Mother is completely in line with the will, and love of God from the very first moment of her being. the Heart of Mary is the manifestation of the Blessed Mothers intense and burning love for Christ, and her desire to bring all souls to her divine son Jesus. in a sense the Blessed Mothers own heart is what we should be striving to imitate in our Christian life, a heart that seeks to please God, to love God, to so arrange our interior lives that our outer actions become fountains of Charity to the world around us, and consequently leading souls to Christ. Just like the Blessed Mother, we to must come to a burning fire of love for humanity and for God so that we can bring forth Christ in the world as she did.

Prayer to the Eternal
Father

0 eternal Father, through
the divine Heart of Jesus, I adore You for all those adore you not;
I love You for all those who do not love you.
I go in spirit through the whole world to seek for souls
redeemed by the blood of Jesus.
I embrace them in order to present them to You in His Sacred
Heart, and in union with your merciful Heart, I ask for their conversion.

Prayer to the Immaculate Heart of Mary

Mary Immaculate, Mother of God and perfect Christian, you treasured
the word of God, in faith you pondered it in your heart and acted
on it in charity and service. We know that as children of God
and believing Christians, God's love is given to us, "...the
love of God has been poured into our hearts by the Holy Spirit
which has been given to us." (Romans 5:5) Your heart as
symbol of your love for God, for us, and for all creation, reminds
us that "as long as we love one another God will Live in
us And His Love will be complete in us." (John 4:12).